Fisher House Foundation is best known for the network of comfort homes built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers. The Fisher Houses are 5,000 to 16,800-square-foot (1,560 m²) homes, donated to the military and Department of Veterans Affairs, where families can stay while a loved one is receiving treatment. Additionally, the Foundation ensures that families of service men and women wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan are not burdened with unnecessary expense during a time of crisis.

Located in close proximity to the medical center or hospital it serves, each Fisher House consists of between 8 and 21 suites, with private bedrooms and baths. Families share a common kitchen, laundry facilities, spacious dining room and an inviting living room with a library and toys for children. Fisher House Foundation ensures that there is no fee to stay in a Fisher House. Since inception, the program has saved military and veteran families an estimated $165 million in out of pocket costs for lodging and transportation.

Fisher House Foundation operates the Hero Miles Program, using donated frequent flyer miles to bring family members to the bedside of injured service members. To date Hero Miles has provided over 22,000 airline tickets to our military and their families. The Foundation also manages a grant program that supports other military charities and scholarship funds for military children, spouses and children of fallen and disabled veterans.

Military care[link]

The Fisher House program was established by Zachary Fisher and his wife Elizabeth. The first "Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher House" was opened in Bethesda, Maryland at National Naval Medical Center on 24 June 1990. President George H. W. Bush and Mrs. Barbara Bush opened the second Fisher House at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC.^[1] To date, the program consists of 54 houses located near Veterans Affairs hospitals and military installations across the country and at one United States military installations in Europe. From these locations, Fisher House serves more than 12,000 military families per year. The Fisher House program plans to build several more lodging facilities to complete its nationwide support network.^[2]

Fisher Houses are given to the United States Government as gifts by the Fisher House Foundation. Each house is designed to provide eight to 21 family suites. The houses accommodate 16 to 42 family members. They feature a common kitchen, laundry facilities, spacious dining room, and a family style living room with a library. Toys are provided for the younger children.^[2]

The Fisher House at Keesler AFB built in 1992

Fisher Houses are a temporary residence, not a treatment facility, hospice or counseling center. They are normally within walking distance of a military or Veterans Affairs hospital. They are designed to be comfortable temporary home, manned by caring volunteers who help family members endure the stresses associated with serious long-term medical conditions or injuries. Fisher House enables families to stay together, cook meals, do chores, and relax in a home-like environment. The nominal service fee charged Fisher House guests is always lower than other military lodging facilities and much lower than commercial hotels.^[1] There is no charge to stay at any of the Fisher Houses.^[3]

Since Federal law prohibited the military from paying for the personal travel of service members and their families, Fisher House expanded its support to include airline tickets. Through a program call Operation Hero Miles, Fisher House now gives away free airline tickets to help military families reunite with hospitalized service members.^[4]

Foundation[link]

The Fisher House Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1990 by Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher. The Foundation funded construction of Fisher House facilities near military hospitals and Vertans Affairs medical centers. In addition to building new houses, the Foundation educates the public about the Fisher House program, raised funds to support and expand the Fisher House network, and helps individual military families in need. For example, families of patients at any military hospital can receive up-to-the-minute reports on a loved one by going to the patient's own customized web-page available through an on-line system called CaringBridge which is funded by the Foundation. The Fisher House Foundation and many individual Fisher Houses receive financial support from the Combined Federal Campaign.^[2]

Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher[link]

Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher

As a young man, Zachary Fisher was severely injured in a construction accident. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, he tried to enlist, but was rejected by the military due to his injury. Since he was unable to join the military, he decided to help the war effort by building coastal fortifications for United States Army Corps of Engineers.^[1]

After World War II, Fisher built a successful construction business. He also continued to look for ways to support America and its men and women in uniform. In 1988, in response to the attack on the USS Stark in the Persian Gulf, Fisher and his wife Elizabeth established the Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher Armed Services Foundation, to provide financial assistance to needy members of the Armed Forces and their dependents. Since then, the Foundation has provided substantial direct payments to families of service members killed or injured in the line of duty. The Foundation also provides college scholarships for dependents of military personnel.^[1]

In 1990, the Fishers decided to build a comfortable home-like lodging facility to house families of patients undergoing treatment at a military hospital. The home was located in Portsmouth, Virginia, and was called the "Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher House". The Fisher House was designed to accommodate eight families and was fully furnished as a comfortable home. The current Fisher House program and its network of houses grew out of that initial project.^[1]

Fisher died on 4 June 1999, but the Fisher House Foundation continues to build Fisher Houses and carry on the Fisher legacy of helping military men and women and their families.^[2]

Locations[link]

Currently, there are 54 Fisher Houses located on military installations and near veterans hospitals throughout the United States plus two at an American military base in Germany. The Fisher House Foundation plans to increase the number of facilities as resources become available.^[2]

Fisher Houses are located on military installations and near veterans hospitals to support military families and American veterans

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Fisher House Foundation

• Fisher House Foundation

The House Foundation

Genre	Comedy, Talk, Country
Running time	4 hours
Country	United States
Home station	WSIX-FM
Starring	Gerry House Mike Bohan Al Voecks Duncan Stewart Richard Falklen
Creators	Gerry House
Writers	Gerry House
Exec. producers	Gerry House
Air dates	1983 to 2010
Website	The House Foundation (Redirects to WSIX Home Page)

The House Foundation was the morning show at Nashville's WSIX-FM radio station.

History[link]

Beginnings[link]

In the early 80's, WSIX-FM started a morning show that featured veteran disc jockey and songwriter Gerry House as the host. Al Voecks had presented a talk show on the AM station, and he soon became House's news man. Duncan Stewart came to Nashville from Boston in 1983, through a friendship with the music director at WSIX-FM, and he soon became House's Sports guy.

Completing the foundation was Paul Randall, who began as a traffic reporter and he soon became House's co-presenter or 'sidekick'. While Voecks and Stewart came in every half hour to do news and sports, Randall stuck around for the whole show and played off House.

Hiatus[link]

The first run of the 'House Foundation' ended in 1985 when Gerry left for WSIX's competitors, WSM, citing politics within the company as the reason. Soon thereafter, he moved to California as an on-air personality for KLAC

Return[link]

After a successful time in California on radio and writing for Television, Gerry cited personal reasons for a return to Nashville. WSIX's new owner, Steve Hicks, soon offered House his job back and even agreed to a complete 'House Foundation' reunion that would see House return to the air with Voecks, Stewart and Randall all in their original roles. Devon O'Day also joined the show as producer and for a Country news segment at 9.45 called 'Twang Talk'.

Loss of Paul Randall[link]

Tragedy would strike when House Foundation member Paul Randall became very ill. Mike Bohan joined the show in 1995 after 20 years at WSMV. Randall succumbed to his illness in 1998 and Gerry finds it hard to speak of his late friend now.

Today[link]

Randall's sidekick role was filled by Mike Bohan, former weatherman for WSMV-TV. Recently Richard Falklen joined the team as a replacement for Devon O'Day and hosts the news segment once named 'Twang Talk'. Falklen's 'disembodied voice', as Gerry calls it, can often be heard through the studio intercom during the show whenever he adds input.

Al Voecks and Duncan Stewart's contracts were not renewed by WSIX and they ended being with the show in Dec. 2009 and many listeners were saddened by their departure. Gerry stated to them on their last day that the show would not be the same without them.

The End[link]

On Friday, September 3, 2010, Gerry announced in the last few minutes of the show that the House Foundation would be dissolving and that their last broadcast will be on December 15, 2010. Gerry stopped short of calling it a retirement and made no characterization as to whether or not the decision was solely his — instead stating that "no one is mad at anyone" and that the timing "feels right". A press release issued to local media immediately after the announcement said that Gerry will continue to contribute to WSIX as a writer, adviser, and "consigliere".

Show Details[link]

Format[link]

The House Foundation follows a traditional morning show format, eschewing sequential song play for information and discussion. Generally, in any given segment of the show, there will be one top charting Country Music song, a time of discussion among the hosts and/or listeners, and a series of commercials. In addition, there are traffic/weather/news/sports blocks interspersed with commercial messages.

Guests[link]

Fictional Gerry House Characters[link]

House pre-tapes many of the comedy bits played throughout the show, using his own voice and stock music.

Homer

By far, the most prevalent fictional voice on the show, Homer voices the shows opening and many of the station identification spots. House often sets up jokes with the Homer character, and will sometimes dialogue with his pre-recorded banter.

Makk Trukk

Accompanied by Battle Hymn of the Republic, this character gives a comedic political commentary.

Mayor/Governor Phil Bredesen

House imitates the politician, usually repeating the recognizable phrase, "and... hello..."

Maurice

This African-American sportscaster often lampoons local sports team achievements or non-achievements. House originated the character while he was in Los Angeles originally for the Los Angeles Lakers.

Live Guests[link]

House generally does not have live guests on his show, but will from time-to-time feature country music stars local politicians and local celebrities. Many country stars do listen to his show either locally or on satellite radio, and will often call in unsolicited. Occasionally, House will bait a star to call in on the air with mixed results. There is an unpublished phone number that House provides to entertainers so that they do not have to be queued with the general public.

Regular Features[link]

Show Segments[link]

House determines the overall direction of the show, sticking with a fairly regular template each morning. Certain portions of the show are designed to solicit input from listeners, and often House will direct the conversation to current events both in news and entertainment. House is very adept at structuring conversations to be informative and humorous at the same time. Almost always, the music played is country, and House almost always tells a caller, when requesting a "devil rock-and-roll" (as he puts it) song, to "Get off the phone!" However in some cases (such as when a 13 year old boy named Noah called, requesting the song Bad Day, and House was so taken by Noah's enthusiasm (though he did wait until Noah hung up before he told Bohan to find it)) House will play a non-country song.

Daily[link]

Cornpone Canker

House, using the name "Cornpone Canker", will play a new country song and solicit callers to rate it on a scale of one to ten. Cornpone will take around a dozen calls each day during the segment, and Bohan will average the results.

Shout out to the host

Toward the end of the 7:00 hour, House chooses a classic country song to play with the primary intention to allow listeners to lavish praise on him for his choice. Listeners call in and "give a shout out" to House about how much they like the song. House self-depracatingly acknowledges their calls. Occasionally, House will choose a song based on current events that may or may not be within the country genre. Usually this creates more intense reactions from his listeners, both negative and positive.

Things you would have heard, had you been listening

During the 9:00 hour, House recaps many of the punchlines used in the day's show. Often the result is unintentionally hilarious, even without hearing the setups for the jokes.

Weekly[link]

What are you doin'?

Friday mornings prior to 7:00 a.m., House will ask his audience to call in with their weekend plans so that the team can "live vigorously [vicariously]" through them. House improvs off each phone call. He typically says "What's a-haappenin'?"

Comedy Bumpers[link]

Throughout the show, House will insert pre-recorded short comedy segments that he creates at his studio House Notes. Several segments are long-running, where the general framework of the comedy bit stays the same, but the content changes, sometimes based on current events.

The New Opry

Since The Grand Ole Opry runs on a competitor station in Nashville (and for a period of time ran paid advertisements on the House Foundation), House created a bit that is a false ad for The New Opry. Touting itself as an improvement on "the old one", the ad lists a lineup of unlikely performers including "_______ Herlihey" and "the ________ sisters" where the blank spot changes each time. Other "new Opry" lampoons include Billy Gilman, Nashville/Tennessee politicians and various non-country stars.

Daily Contests[link]

Daily contests occur at regular times each day during the show. House announces the call-in number and the audience is invited to call to compete. A caller is chosen at random to participate. The sole prize for the winner is $50. House generally does everything he can to help the caller win the contest, and has been known to award the prize even when the caller is incorrect, or has to guess several times to get the answer. Winning answers are accompanied by a stock cheering sound effect.

You Be the Judge

Liar's Club

Special Contests[link]

Whenever there is a major prize given away on the House Foundation, the contest usually includes some sort of complex trivia question, nonsense phrase or guessing game that lasts for almost the entire show. Like most radio stations, major prize contests usually occur on Thursdays during sweeps.

Featured Commercial Sponsors[link]

House's show is sponsored by local and national companies. Certain featured sponsors receive regular advertising times when their commercial spot is broadcast. Some sponsors appear on the show themselves, either in pre-taped or participatory segments that feature extemporaneous improvisation with House. Other sponsors elect to have House Foundation members voice their spots in testimonials.

One interesting aspect of the majority of the phoned in advertisements - the sponsors seem to be coached to agree with everything that Gerry says, applying a basic rule of improvisational comedy.

Gerry House Spots[link]

• Voiced live by House alone
  • 7:30 a.m. daily - Hunter's Custom Automotive - This ad generally has the same copy each time, so House reads it each time in a different inflection, imitation and accent, adding in ad libs based on popular music or current events.
• Improvised live spots with sponsors
  • Daily - Worthington Mortgage - House dialogues by phone with Will Worthington, owner of the company, who promotes his company's low interest rates and online applications. Most days, House will segue out of the discussion and make an oblique ironic connection between whatever the previous topic was and home mortgages. In addition, House will take the opportunity to make a veiled insult to Mike Bohan for not refinancing his mortgage to a lower interest rate.
  • Weekly - Fluffo Mattress - House talks by phone with Horace Bass of Nashville-based Fluffo Mattress Company. The discussion invariably turns to the languid tones of Horace. In the event that Bass does not call in for the commercial, House infers that proves the quality of the product, because he must be asleep on his Fluffo.
  • Weekly - Kroger Image Express - House talks by phone with a representative from Kroger's photo service about specials that they are running, often asking inappropriate questions.
  • Weekly - LAVE M.D. - House talks by phone with a doctor from Nashville's Laser and Vein Aesthetics.

Mike Bohan Spots[link]

Frequently, Bohan will voice a five to ten second live spot prior to his weather report. Many times, House will interrupt and try to throw him off script

• Voiced live by Bohan alone
  • Ming Wang - Nashville Lasik surgeon
  • The Tennessean - often features a tease of the day's stories
• Voiced pre-recorded by Bohan alone
  • Dunkin Donuts

Duncan Stewart Spots[link]

• Voiced pre-recorded by Stewart alone
  • Shane Co.
  • (former sponsor) Krystal

Running Gags[link]

Many of the comedic elements of the show are recurrent and understandable at first hearing. Some of the show's jokes have stemmed from topical discussions, and others are based on malapropisms that have occurred on the show.

Jokes[link]

Many of the long running jokes on the show are pre-written or developed through improvisation.

Call if you...

Whenever the discussion on a specific topic gets out of hand, House will interrupt the conversation with the "Call if you..." question requesting calls from listeners who espouse a position that is a ludicrous characterization of the topic being discussed.

How did we get so late?

Many times, the discussion on topics extends beyond the scheduled timeframe, delaying the scheduled news broadcast by a number of minutes. Usually, when trying to get the show back on track, House will incredulously ask, "how did we get so late?" and then invite the audience to call to discuss why they're late... which of course, would make them later... which, of course was how they got in the predicament in the first place.

I'm _____, and I'm _____

House will come back from break many times introducing himself as a famous character with the expectation that Bohan will finish the well-known pairing, usually with embarrassing results to Bohan.

Shut 'er Down!

Often when Voecks is reading a news story about a plant closing, the end of a political campaign or other stopping, House will yell off-mike "Shut 'er Down!" in an odd voice.

The Squirrel! (followed by a Squirrel imitation)

When primary competitor WSM-FM adopted a new station mascot of "The Wolf", House protested 98's lack of an animal mascot and suggested they be known as "The Squirrel."

Inside Jokes[link]

The House Foundation has myriad inside jokes, most deriving from spontaneous improvisation between House and the various other members of the team. Sometimes these jokes require extensive listening to more fully appreciate their humor.

Bohan(-ing)

House's sidekick Mike Bohan is known for his frugality and frequent use of station marketing opportunities to receive free goods and services. For that reason, House has chosen to turn his name into a verb to describe this act.

Examples:

When I went to the restaurant on its opening night, I Bohanned a meal from them.

I have a friend who works for the theater, so I Bohanned these tickets from him.

Our eight listeners

House jokes that his show is so unpopular that they only have eight listeners, and to lose any of them would be catastrophic. Many people will call in and refer to themselves as "one of the eight."

Stewart or Voecks Drinking

House jokes about Stewart and Voecks's ability to consume adult beverages.

The UPS Man

House infers frequently that his wife is having an affair with the UPS driver that services his house. He often cites made up "evidence" to this. The gag stemmed from a commentary on the amount of mail-ordering that his wife does.

Voecks's age

Because he is the most senior of the team, House often jokes obliquely about Voecks's age, inferring that he is multiple hundreds of years old.

The Best of the House Foundation[link]

When House is away on vacation or ill, Chris Romer presents "The Best Of The House Foundation". Generally, the ratio of music to other material is increased greatly in this format, but usually with some "best of" material between songs: averaging 7-8 bits per hour.

The Best of the House Foundation also aired on Saturdays...and 5-6am weekdays.

References[link]

• http://www.wsix.com/pages/personality_hfoundation.html

Fisher House, or variations including Fisher Hall or Fisher Homestead, may refer to:

• Fisher House Foundation - an organization funding the construction of family lodging facilities near military hospitals

in England

• Fisher House, Cambridge - a Catholic chaplaincy for members of the University of Cambridge

in the United States

(by state then city)

• Fisher Memorial Home, Casa Grande, Arizona, listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in Pinal County
• Fisher/Goldwater House, Prescott, Arizona, listed on the NRHP in Yavapai County
• John P. Fisher House, Portland, Arkansas, listed on the NRHP in Ashley County
• Fisher-Zugelder House and Smith Cottage, Gunnison, Colorado, listed on the NRHP in Gunnison County
• William G. Fisher House, Denver, Colorado, listed on the NRHP in Denver County
• Fisher Homestead (Lewes, Delaware), listed on the NRHP in Sussex County
• Andrew Fisher House, Newark, Delaware, listed on the NRHP in New Castle County
• Fisher House (Lavonia, Georgia), listed on the NRHP in Franklin County
• Bushnell-Fisher House, Eagle, Idaho, listed on the NRHP in Ada County
• James M. Fisher House, Weiser, Idaho, listed on the NRHP in Washington County
• Fisher-Nash-Griggs House, Ottawa, Illinois, listed on the NRHP in LaSalle County
• Lewis M. Fisher House, Davenport, Iowa, listed on the NRHP in Scott County
• Fisher Homestead (Cloverport, Kentucky), listed on the NRHP in Breckinridge County
• Fisher House (Fisherville, Kentucky), listed on the NRHP in Jefferson County
• Applegate-Fisher House, West Point, Kentucky, listed on the NRHP in Hardin County
• Fisher-Richardson House, Mansfield, Massachusetts, listed on the NRHP in Bristol County
• Nathan Fisher House, Westborough, Massachusetts, listed on the NRHP in Worcester County
• Henry N. Fisher House, Waltham, Massachusetts, listed on the NRHP in Middlesex County
• Nelson E. Fisher House – High Banks, Iron River, Michigan, listed on the NRHP in Iron County
• Burr Fisher House, Bozeman, Montana, listed on the NRHP in Gallatin County
• Fisher House (Kalispell, Montana), listed on the NRHP in Flathead County
• Joseph Fisher House, Stevensville, Montana, listed on the NRHP in Ravalli County
• E.D. Fisher House, Bolivar, Ohio, listed on the NRHP in Tuscarawas County
• Fisher Hall (Oxford, Ohio), formerly listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Butler County, Ohio
• Ferdinand Fisher House, Astoria, Oregon, listed on the NRHP in Clatsop County
• Raymond and Catherine Fisher House, Portland, Oregon, listed on the NRHP in Multnomah County
• Thaddeus Fisher House, Portland, Oregon, listed on the NRHP in Multnomah County
• Fisher House (Hatboro, Pennsylvania) by noted architect Louis Kahn
• Maj. Jared B. Fisher House, Spring Mills, Pennsylvania, listed on the NRHP in Centre County
• Henry Fisher House, Yellow House, Pennsylvania, listed on the NRHP in Berks County
• Adam Fisher Homestead, United, Pennsylvania, listed on the NRHP in Westmoreland County
• A.J. Fisher House, Walland, Tennessee, listed on the NRHP in Blount County
• Fisher Hall (San Marcos, Texas), San Marcos, Texas, listed on the NRHP in Hays County
• David Fisher House, Heber City, Utah, listed on the NRHP in Wasatch County

See also[link]

• Fisher Hall (disambiguation)
• Fisher Homestead (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Louis Isadore Kahn (born Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky) (February 20, 1901 or 1902 – March 17, 1974) was an American architect,^[1] based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. After working in various capacities for several firms in Philadelphia, he founded his own atelier in 1935. While continuing his private practice, he served as a design critic and professor of architecture at Yale School of Architecture from 1947 to 1957. From 1957 until his death, he was a professor of architecture at the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania. Influenced by ancient ruins, Kahn's style tends to the monumental and monolithic; his heavy buildings do not hide their weight, their materials, or the way they are assembled. Louis Kahn's works are considered as monumental beyond modernism.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Jesse Oser House, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania (1940)

Louis Kahn, whose original name was Itze-Leib (Leiser-Itze) Schmuilowsky (Schmalowski), was born into a poor Jewish family in Pärnu and spent the rest of his early childhood in Kuressaare on the Estonian island of Saaremaa, then part of the Russian Empire. At age 3, he saw coals in the stove and was captivated by the light of the coal. He put the coal in his apron which caught on fire and seared his face.^[2] He carried these scars for the rest of his life.^[3]

In 1906, his family immigrated to the United States, fearing that his father would be recalled into the military during the Russo-Japanese War. His actual birth year may have been inaccurately recorded in the process of immigration. According to his son's documentary film in 2003^[4] the family couldn't afford pencils but made their own charcoal sticks from burnt twigs so that Louis could earn a little money from drawings and later by playing piano to accompany silent movies. He became a naturalized citizen on May 15, 1914. His father changed their name in 1915.

Career[link]

He trained in a rigorous Beaux-Arts tradition, with its emphasis on drawing, at the University of Pennsylvania. After completing his Bachelor of Architecture in 1924, Kahn worked as senior draftsman in the office of City Architect John Molitor. In this capacity, he worked on the design for the 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition.^[5]

In 1928, Kahn made a European tour and took a particular interest in the medieval walled city of Carcassonne, France and the castles of Scotland rather than any of the strongholds of classicism or modernism.^[6] After returning to the States in 1929, Kahn worked in the offices of Paul Philippe Cret, his former studio critic at the University of Pennsylvania, and in the offices of Zantzinger, Borie and Medary in Philadelphia.^[5] In 1932, Kahn and Dominique Berninger founded the Architectural Research Group, whose members were interested in the populist social agenda and new aesthetics of the European avant-gardes. Among the projects Kahn worked on during this collaboration are unbuilt schemes for public housing that had originally been presented to the Public Works Administration.^[5]

Louis Kahn's Salk Institute

Among the more important of Kahn's early collaborations was with George Howe.^[7] Kahn worked with Howe in late 1930s on projects for the Philadelphia Housing Authority and again in 1940, along with German-born architect Oscar Stonorov for the design of housing developments in other parts of Pennsylvania.^[8]

Kahn did not find his distinctive architectural style until he was in his fifties. Initially working in a fairly orthodox version of the International Style, a stay at the American Academy in Rome in the early 1950s marked a turning point in Kahn's career. The back-to-the-basics approach he adopted after visiting the ruins of ancient buildings in Italy, Greece, and Egypt helped him to develop his own style of architecture influenced by earlier modern movements but not limited by their sometimes dogmatic ideologies.

In 1961 he received a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts to study traffic movement^[9][10] in Philadelphia and create a proposal for a viaduct system. He describes this proposal at a lecture given in 1962 at the International Design Conference in Aspen, Colorado:

In the center of town the streets should become buildings. This should be interplayed with a sense of movement which does not tax local streets for non-local traffic. There should be a system of viaducts which encase an area which can reclaim the local streets for their own use, and it should be made so this viaduct has a ground floor of shops and usable area. A model which I did for the Graham Foundation recently, and which I presented to Mr. Entenza, showed the scheme.^[11]

Kahn's teaching career began at Yale University in 1947, and he was eventually named Albert F. Bemis Professor of Architecture and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962 and Paul Philippe Cret Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in 1966 and was also a Visiting Lecturer at Princeton University from 1961 to 1967. Kahn was elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1953. He was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1964. He was awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal in 1964. He was made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1968 and awarded the AIA Gold Medal, the highest award given by the AIA, in 1971^[12] and the Royal Gold Medal by the RIBA in 1972.

Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban[link]

Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban (National Assembly Building) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, is perhaps the most important building designed by Kahn. Kahn got the design contract with the help of Muzharul Islam, his student at Yale University, who worked with him on the project. It was Kahn's last project during 1962 to 1974. It is the centerpiece of the national capital complex designed by Kahn that includes hostels, dining halls, and a hospital. According to Robert McCarter, author of Louis I. Kahn,^[13]

Death[link]

In 1974, Kahn died of a heart attack in a men's restroom in Pennsylvania Station in New York.^[14] He went unidentified for three days because he had crossed out the home address on his passport. He had just returned from a work trip to Bangladesh, and despite his long career, he was deeply in debt when he died.

Personal life[link]

Kahn had three different families with three different women: his wife, Esther, whom he married in 1930; Anne Tyng, who began her working collaboration and personal relationship with Kahn in 1945; and Harriet Pattison. When Tyng became pregnant in 1953, to mitigate the scandal she was sent away to Rome, Italy where their daughter was born.^[15]

Kahn's obituary in the New York Times, written by Paul Goldberger, mentions only Esther and his daughter by her as survivors. But in 2003, Kahn's son with Pattison, Nathaniel Kahn, released an Oscar-nominated biographical documentary about his father, titled My Architect: A Son's Journey, which gives glimpses of the architecture while focusing on talking to the people who knew him: family, friends, and colleagues. It includes interviews with renowned architect contemporaries such as Muzharul Islam, B. V. Doshi, Frank Gehry, Ed Bacon, Philip Johnson, I. M. Pei, and Robert A. M. Stern, but also an insider's view of Kahn's unusual family arrangements. The unusual manner of his death is used as a point of departure and a metaphor for Kahn's "nomadic" life in the film.

Designs[link]

Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas (1966–72)

• Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut,(1951–1953), the first significant commission of Louis Kahn and his first masterpiece, replete with technical innovations. For example, he designed a hollow concrete tetrahedral space-frame that did away with the need for ductwork and reduced the floor-to-floor height by channeling air through the structure itself. Like many of Kahn's buildings, the Art Gallery makes subtle references to its context while overtly rejecting any historical style.
• Richards Medical Research Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (1957–1965), a breakthrough in Kahn's career that helped set new directions for modern architecture with its clear expression of served and servant spaces and its evocation of the architecture of the past.
• The Salk Institute, La Jolla, California, (1959–1965), was to be a campus composed of three main clusters: meeting and conference areas, living quarters, and laboratories. Only the laboratory cluster, consisting of two parallel blocks enclosing a water garden, was actually built. The two laboratory blocks frame an exquisite view of the Pacific Ocean, accentuated by a thin linear fountain that seems to reach for the horizon.
• First Unitarian Church, Rochester, New York (1959–1969), named as one of the greatest religious structures of the 20th century by Paul Goldberger, Pulitzer Prize-winning architectural critic.^[16] Tall, narrow window recesses create an irregular rhythm of shadows on the exterior while four light towers flood the sanctuary walls with indirect natural light.
• Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban (National Assembly Building) in Dhaka, Bangladesh (1962–1974)
• Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in Ahmedabad, India (1962).
• National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases (NICVD), Dhaka, Bangladesh (1963)^{[citation needed]}
• Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Exeter, New Hampshire, (1965–1972), awarded the Twenty-five Year Award by the American Institute of Architects in 1997. It is famous for its dramatic atrium with enormous circular openings into the book stacks.
• Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, (1967–1972), features repeated bays of cycloid-shaped barrel vaults with light slits along the apex, which bathe the artwork on display in an ever-changing diffuse light.
• Yale Center for British Art, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, (1969–1974).
• Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, Roosevelt Island, New York, (1972–1974), unbuilt.

Timeline of works[link]

Interior of Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Exeter, New Hampshire (1965–72)

All dates refer to the year project commenced

• 1935 – Jersey Homesteads Cooperative Development, Hightstown, New Jersey
• 1940 – Jesse Oser House, 628 Stetson Road, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania
• 1947 – Phillip Q. Roche House, 2101 Harts Lane, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania
• 1951 – Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut
• 1952 – City Tower Project, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (unbuilt)
• 1954 – Jewish Community Center (aka Trenton Bath House), 999 Lower Ferry Road, Ewing, New Jersey
• 1956 – Wharton Esherick Studio, 1520 Horseshoe Trail, Malvern, Pennsylvania (designed with Wharton Esherick)
• 1957 – Richards Medical Research Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania, 3700 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• 1957 – Fred E. and Elaine Cox Clever House, 417 Sherry Way, Cherry Hill, New Jersey
• 1959 – Margaret Esherick House, 204 Sunrise Lane, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania^[17]
• 1958 – Tribune Review Publishing Company Building, 622 Cabin Hill Drive, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
• 1959 – Salk Institute for Biological Studies, 10 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, California
• 1959 – First Unitarian Church, 220 South Winton Road, Rochester, New York
• 1960 – Erdman Hall Dormitories, Bryn Mawr College, Morris Avenue, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania
• 1960 – Norman Fisher House, 197 East Mill Road, Hatboro, Pennsylvania
• 1961 – Point Counterpoint II, barge used by the American Wind Symphony Orchestra
• 1962 – Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India
• 1962 – National Assembly Building, Dhaka, Bangladesh
• 1963 – President's Estate, Islamabad, Pakistan (unbuilt)
• 1965 – Phillips Exeter Academy Library, Front Street, Exeter, New Hampshire
• 1966 – Kimbell Art Museum, 3333 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, Texas
• 1966 – Olivetti-Underwood Factory, Valley Road, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
• 1968 – Hurva Synagogue, Jerusalem, Israel (unbuilt)
• 1969 – Yale Center for British Art, Yale University, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut
• 1971 – Steven Korman House, Sheaff Lane, Fort Washington, Pennsylvania
• 1972 – Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, Roosevelt Island, New York City, New York (due to open in 2012).

"Changing Skyline: One more masterpiece by Kahn nears reality." Philadelphia Inquirer. August 23, 2009.</ref>

• 1973 – The Arts United Center (Formerly known as the Fine Arts Foundation Civic Center), Fort Wayne, Indiana^[18]
• 1979 – Flora Lamson Hewlett Library of the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California^[19]

Legacy[link]

360° panorama in the courtyard of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California (1959–65).

Panorama of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

Louis Kahn Memorial Park, 11th & Pine Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Louis Kahn's work infused the International style with a fastidious, highly personal taste, a poetry of light. His few projects reflect his deep personal involvement with each. Isamu Noguchi called him "a philosopher among architects." He was known for his ability to create monumental architecture that responded to the human scale. He was also concerned with creating strong formal distinctions between served spaces and servant spaces. What he meant by servant spaces was not spaces for servants, but rather spaces that serve other spaces, such as stairwells, corridors, restrooms, or any other back-of-house function like storage space or mechanical rooms. His palette of materials tended toward heavily textured brick and bare concrete, the textures often reinforced by juxtaposition to highly refined surfaces such as travertine marble.

While widely known for his spaces' poetic sensibilities, Kahn also worked closely with engineers and contractors on his buildings. The results were often technically innovative and highly refined. In addition to the influence Kahn's more well-known work has on contemporary architects (such as Muzharul Islam, Tadao Ando), some of his work (especially the unbuilt City Tower Project) became very influential among the high-tech architects of the late 20th century (such as Renzo Piano, who worked in Kahn's office, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster). His prominent apprentices include Muzharul Islam, Moshe Safdie, Robert Venturi, Jack Diamond.

Many years after his death, Kahn continues to inspire controversy. Interest is growing in a plan to build a Kahn-designed Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park at the southern tip of Roosevelt Island.^[20] A New York Times editorial opined:

There's a magic to the project. That the task is daunting makes it worthy of the man it honors, who guided the nation through the Depression, the New Deal and a world war. As for Mr. Kahn, he died in 1974, as he passed alone through New York's Penn Station. In his briefcase were renderings of the memorial, his last completed plan.^[21]

The editorial describes Kahn's plan as:

...simple and elegant. Drawing inspiration from Roosevelt's defense of the Four Freedoms – of speech and religion, and from want and fear – he designed an open 'room and a garden' at the bottom of the island. Trees on either side form a 'V' defining a green space, and leading to a two-walled stone room at the water's edge that frames the United Nations and the rest of the skyline.

Critics note that the panoramic view of Manhattan and the UN are actually blocked by the walls of that room and by the trees.^[22] Other as-yet-unanswered critics have argued more broadly that not enough thought has been given to what visitors to the memorial would actually be able to do at the site.^[23] The proposed project is opposed by a majority of island residents who were surveyed by the Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation group currently working extensively on the island.^[24]

The movement for the memorial, which was conceived by Kahn's firm almost 35 years ago, needed to raise $40 million by the end of 2007; as of July 20, it had collected $5.1 million.^[25] There is a merest hint in Architectural Record about the often-heard argument that it must be built because it was literally Kahn's last project;^[26] and this is rebutted by those who've said the plans aren't enough like Kahn's other work for it to be touted as a memorial to Kahn as well as FDR.^[27]

In Popular Culture[link]

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Lewis Spratlan, with his collaborators Jenny Kallick and John Downey, composed the chamber opera Architect as a character study of Kahn. The premiere recording is due to be released in 2012 by Navona Records.

Kahn was the subject of the documentary film My Architect, presented by Nathaniel Kahn, his son.

His complicated family life inspired the Undaunted Mettle episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Gallery[link]

• 

  Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut (1951–53).

• 

  Coffered ceiling in Yale University Art Gallery (1951–53).

• 

  Stairwell in Yale University Art Gallery (1951–53).

• Trenton Bath House-Model-Program and Volume-Roof with Sheathing 2.jpg

  Reconstructed model (2008) of Trenton Bath House, Ewing, New Jersey (1954).

• 

  Wharton Esherick Studio, 1520 Horseshoe Trail, Malvern, Pennsylvania (1956). Designed with Wharton Esherick.

• 

  Richards Medical Research Laboratories, University of Pennsylvania, 3700 Hamilton Walk, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1957–65).

• 

  Interior of First Unitarian Church, Rochester, New York (1959)

• 

  Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India (1962).

• 

  Yale Center for British Art, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (1969–74).

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Curtis, William (1987). Modern Architecture Since 1900 (2nd Ed. ed.). Prentice-Hall. pp. 309–316. ISBN 0-13-586694-4. 
• Kahn, Louis I. (1987). Louis I.Kahn: Complete Work 1935–1974 (2nd Rev. and Enl. Ed edition ed.). Birkhauser Verlag AG. p. 437. ISBN 3-7643-1347-1. 
• Leslie, Thomas. (2005). Louis I.Kahn: Building Art, Building Science. New York: George Braziller. ISBN 0-8076-1540-4. 
• McCarter, Robert (2004). Louis I. Kahn. Phaidon Press Ltd. p. 512. ISBN 0-7148-4045-9. 
• Wiseman, Carter (2007). Louis I. Kahn: Beyond Time and Style: A Life in Architecture (1st Ed. ed.). New York: W.W. Norton. ISBN 0-393-73165-0. 
• Larson, Kent (2000). Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks. New York: Monacelli Press. p. 232. ISBN 1-58093-014-X. 
• Rosa, Joseph (2006). Peter Gossel. ed. Louis I.Kahn: Enlightened space. Germany: Taschen GmbH. p. 96. ISBN 3-8228-3641-9. 

Further reading[link]

• Louis Kahn: Essential Texts, edited by Robert Twombly, WW Norton & Company, 2003.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Louis Kahn

• Louis I. Kahn – Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project
• The Louis I. Kahn Collection – The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania
• Exhibition at the University of Pennsylvania on Louis I. Kahn Interiors
• Great Buildings Online – Louis I. Kahn
• The Works of Louis I. Kahn, a personal collection of photographs taken at various Kahn buildings.
• Honoring Louis Kahn's Legacy on the 100th Anniversary of His Birth
• Redefining the Basemap
• Louis Kahn traffic studies
• Kahn Project Amherst College

Michelle Obama
First Lady of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2009
Preceded by	Laura Bush
Personal details
Born	Michelle LaVaughn Robinson (1964-01-17) January 17, 1964 (age 48) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Barack Obama (m. 1992)
Children	Malia (born 1998) Sasha (born 2001)
Residence	Hyde Park, Chicago (private) The White House (official)
Alma mater	Princeton University (A.B.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Profession	Lawyer
Religion	Protestant Christian
Signature

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama (born January 17, 1964) is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Obama attended Princeton University and Harvard Law School before returning to Chicago and to work at the law firm Sidley Austin, where she met her future husband. Subsequently, she worked as part of the staff of Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley, and for the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Throughout 2007 and 2008, she helped campaign for her husband's presidential bid and delivered a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. She is the mother of two daughters, Malia and Sasha, and is the sister of Craig Robinson, men's basketball coach at Oregon State University. As the wife of a Senator, and later the First Lady, she has become a fashion icon and role model for women, and an advocate for poverty awareness, nutrition and healthy eating.^[1][2]

Family and education[link]

Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born on January 17, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois, to Fraser Robinson III,^[3] a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain, and Marian (née Shields), a secretary at Spiegel's catalog store.^[4] Her mother was a full-time homemaker until Michelle entered high school.^[5] The Robinson and Shields families can trace their roots^[6] to pre-Civil War African Americans in the American South. Specifically, her roots can be traced to the Gullah people from South Carolina's Lowcountry region.^[7] Her paternal great-great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was an American slave in the state of South Carolina,^[8][9] where some of her paternal family still reside.^[10][11] Her maternal great-great-great grandmother, Melvinia Shields, also a slave, became pregnant by a white man. His name and the nature of their union have been lost. She gave birth to Michelle's biracial maternal great-great grandfather, Dolphus T. Shields.^[12]

Michelle grew up in a two-story house on Euclid Street in Chicago's South Shore community area. Her parents rented a small apartment on the house's second floor from her great-aunt, who lived downstairs.^{[4][13][14][15]} She was raised in what she describes as a "conventional" home, with "the mother at home, the father works, you have dinner around the table".^[16] The family entertained together by playing games such as Monopoly and by reading.^[17] They attended services at nearby South Shore Methodist Church.^[13] The Robinsons used to vacation in a rustic cabin in White Cloud, Michigan.^[13] She and her brother, Craig (who is 21 months older), skipped the second grade. By sixth grade, Michelle joined a gifted class at Bryn Mawr Elementary School (later renamed Bouchet Academy).^[18]

She attended Whitney Young High School,^[19] Chicago's first magnet high school, where she was a classmate of Jesse Jackson's daughter Santita.^[17] The round trip commute from the Robinsons' South Side home to the Near West Side, where the school was located, took three hours.^[20] She was on the honor roll for four years, took advanced placement classes, a member of the National Honor Society and served as student council treasurer.^[4] Michelle graduated in 1981 as the salutatorian of her class.^[20]

Michelle was inspired to follow her brother to Princeton University;^[5] Craig graduated in 1983. At Princeton, she challenged the teaching methodology for French because she felt that it should be more conversational.^[21] As part of her requirements for graduation, she wrote a thesis entitled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community."^[22][23] "I remember being shocked," she says, "by college students who drove BMWs. I didn't even know parents who drove BMWs."^[20] While at Princeton, she got involved with the Third World Center (now known as the Carl A. Fields Center), an academic and cultural group that supported minority students, running their day care center which also included after school tutoring.^[24] Robinson majored in sociology and minored in African American studies and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in 1985.^[4][25] She earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Harvard Law School in 1988.^[26] At Harvard she participated in demonstrations advocating the hiring of professors who were members of minorities^[27] and worked for the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, assisting low-income tenants with housing cases.^[28] She is the third First Lady with a postgraduate degree, after her two immediate predecessors, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Laura Bush.^[29] In July 2008, Obama accepted the invitation to become an honorary member of the 100-year-old black sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha, which had no active undergraduate chapter at Princeton when she attended.^[30]

Barack and Michelle Obama, 2008.

She met Barack Obama when they were among the few African Americans at their law firm, Sidley Austin (she has sometimes said only two, although others have pointed out there were others in different departments),^[31] and she was assigned to mentor him as a summer associate.^[32] Their relationship started with a business lunch and then a community organization meeting where he first impressed her.^[33] The couple's first date was to the Spike Lee movie Do the Right Thing.^[34] They married in October 1992,^[33] and have two daughters, Malia Ann (born 1998) and Natasha (known as Sasha, born 2001).^[35] After his election to the U.S. Senate, the Obama family continued to live on Chicago's South Side, choosing to remain there rather than moving to Washington, D.C. Throughout her husband's 2008 campaign for President of the United States, she made a "commitment to be away overnight only once a week — to campaign only two days a week and be home by the end of the second day" for their two children.^[36] She is the first cousin, once removed, of Rabbi Capers C. Funnye Jr., one of the country’s most prominent black rabbis.

She once requested that her then-fiancé meet her prospective boss, Valerie Jarrett, when considering her first career move.^[16] Now, Jarrett is one of her husband’s closest advisors.^[37][38] The marital relationship has had its ebbs and flows; the combination of an evolving family life and beginning political career led to many arguments about balancing work and family. Barack Obama wrote in his second book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream, that "Tired and stressed, we had little time for conversation, much less romance".^[39] However, despite their family obligations and careers, they continue to attempt to schedule date nights.^[40]

The Obamas' daughters attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a private school.^[41] As a member of the school's board, Michelle fought to maintain diversity in the school when other board members connected with the University of Chicago tried to reserve more slots for children of the university faculty. This resulted in a plan to expand the school.^[5] Malia and Sasha now attend Sidwell Friends School in Washington, after also considering Georgetown Day School.^[42][43] Michelle stated in an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show that they do not intend to have any more children.^[44] The Obamas have received advice from past first ladies Laura Bush, Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Rodham Clinton about raising children in the White House.^[43] Marian Robinson, Michelle's mother, has moved into the White House to assist with child care.^[45]

Career[link]

Following law school, she was an associate at the Chicago office of the law firm Sidley Austin, where she first met her future husband. At the firm, she worked on marketing and intellectual property.^[4] She continues to hold her law license, but as she no longer needs it for her work, it has been on a voluntary inactive status since 1993.^[46]

In 1991, she held public sector positions in the Chicago city government as an Assistant to the Mayor, and as Assistant Commissioner of Planning and Development. In 1993, she became Executive Director for the Chicago office of Public Allies, a non-profit organization encouraging young people to work on social issues in nonprofit groups and government agencies.^[19] She worked there nearly four years and set fundraising records for the organization that still stood 12 years after she left.^[17]

In 1996, she served as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago, where she developed the University's Community Service Center.^[47] In 2002, she began working for the University of Chicago Hospitals, first as executive director for community affairs and, beginning May 2005, as Vice President for Community and External Affairs.^[48] She continued to hold the University of Chicago Hospitals position during the primary campaign, but cut back to part time in order to spend time with her daughters as well as work for her husband's election;^[49] she subsequently took a leave of absence from her job.^[50] According to the couple’s 2006 income tax return, her salary was $273,618 from the University of Chicago Hospitals, while her husband had a salary of $157,082 from the United States Senate. The Obamas' total income, however, was $991,296, which included $51,200 she earned as a member of the board of directors of TreeHouse Foods, and investments and royalties from his books.^[51]

She served as a salaried board member of TreeHouse Foods, Inc. (NYSE: THS),^[52] a major Wal-Mart supplier with whom she cut ties immediately after her husband made comments critical of Wal-Mart at an AFL-CIO forum in Trenton, New Jersey, on May 14, 2007.^[53] She serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.^[54]

2008 Presidential election[link]

Oprah Winfrey joins the Obamas on the campaign trail, December 10, 2007

The Obamas fist bump upon his winning the Democratic nomination.

The Obamas, with Joe and Jill Biden at the August 23, 2008 Vice Presidential announcement in Springfield, Illinois.

Obama speaks at the 2008 Democratic convention

Although Obama has campaigned on her husband's behalf since early in his political career by handshaking and fund-raising, she did not relish the activity at first. When she campaigned during her husband's 2000 run for United States House of Representatives, her boss at the University of Chicago asked if there was any single thing about campaigning that she enjoyed; after some thought, she replied that visiting so many living rooms had given her some new decorating ideas.^[55]

At first, Obama had reservations about her husband's presidential campaign, due to fears about a possible negative effect on their daughters.^[56] She says that she negotiated an agreement in which her husband was to give up smoking in exchange for her support of his decision to run.^[57] About her role in her husband's presidential campaign she has said: "My job is not a senior adviser."^[37][58][59] During the campaign, she has discussed race and education by using motherhood as a framework.^[21]

In May 2007, three months after her husband declared his presidential candidacy, she reduced her professional responsibilities by 80 percent to support his presidential campaign.^[16] Early in the campaign, she had limited involvement in which she traveled to political events only two days a week and traveled overnight only if their daughters could come along;^[3] by early February 2008 her participation had increased significantly, attending thirty-three events in eight days.^[38] She made several campaign appearances with Oprah Winfrey.^[60][61] She wrote her own stump speeches for her husband's presidential campaign and generally spoke without notes.^[20]

Throughout the campaign, the media often labeled her as an "angry black woman,"^[62][63][64] and some Web sites attempted to propagate this image,^[65] prompting her to respond: "Barack and I have been in the public eye for many years now, and we've developed a thick skin along the way. When you’re out campaigning, there will always be criticism. I just take it in stride, and at the end of the day, I know that it comes with the territory."^[66] By the time of the 2008 Democratic National Convention in August, media outlets observed that her presence on the campaign trail had grown softer than at the start of the race, focusing on soliciting concerns and empathizing with the audience rather than throwing down challenges to them, and giving interviews to shows like The View and publications like Ladies' Home Journal rather than appearing on news programs. The change was even reflected in her fashion choices, wearing more informal clothes in place of her previous designer pieces.^[55] The View appearance was partly intended to help soften her public image,^[62] and it was widely-covered in the press.^[67]

The presidential campaign was her first exposure to the national political scene; even before the field of Democratic candidates was narrowed to two, she was considered the least famous of the candidates' spouses.^[58] Early in the campaign, she told anecdotes about the Obama family life; however, as the press began to emphasize her sarcasm, she toned it down.^[51][57] New York Times op-ed columnist Maureen Dowd wrote:

I wince a bit when Michelle Obama chides her husband as a mere mortal — comic routine that rests on the presumption that we see him as a god ... But it may not be smart politics to mock him in a way that turns him from the glam JFK into the mundane Gerald Ford, toasting his own English muffin. If all Senator Obama is peddling is the Camelot mystique, why debunk this mystique?^[58][68]

On the first night of the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Craig Robinson introduced his younger sister.^[69] She delivered her speech, during which she sought to portray herself and her family as the embodiment of the American Dream.^[70] Obama said both she and her husband believed "that you work hard for what you want in life, that your word is your bond, and you do what you say you're going to do, that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them."^[71] She also emphasized loving her country, in response to criticism for her previous statements about feeling proud of her country for the first time.^[70][72][73] That keynote address was largely well received and drew mostly positive reviews.^[74] A Rasmussen Reports poll found that her favorability among Americans reached 55%.^[75]

On an October 6, 2008 broadcast, Larry King asked her if the American electorate was past the Bradley effect. She stated that her husband's achievement of the nomination was a fairly strong indicator that it was.^[76] The same night she also was interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show where she deflected criticism of her husband and his campaign.^[77] On Fox News' America's Pulse, E. D. Hill referred to the fist bump shared by the Obamas on the night that he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination as a "terrorist fist jab"; Hill was taken off air and the show itself was cancelled.^[78][79][80]

First Lady of the United States[link]

Then-First Lady Laura Bush sits with Obama in the private residence of the White House.

Michelle Obama wore Isabel Toledo clothes made of St. Gallen Embroidery to the 2009 presidential inauguration.

The Obamas dance at a presidential inaugural ball.

Public image and style[link]

With the ascent of her husband as a prominent national politician, Michelle Obama has become a part of popular culture. In May 2006, Essence listed her among "25 of the World's Most Inspiring Women."^[81][82] In July 2007, Vanity Fair listed her among "10 of the World's Best Dressed People." She was an honorary guest at Oprah Winfrey's Legends Ball as a "young'un" paying tribute to the 'Legends,' which helped pave the way for African American Women. In September 2007, 02138 magazine listed her 58th of 'The Harvard 100'; a list of the prior year's most influential Harvard alumni. Her husband was ranked fourth.^[81][83] In July 2008, she made a repeat appearance on the Vanity Fair international best dressed list.^[84] She also appeared on the 2008 People list of best-dressed women and was praised by the magazine for her "classic and confident" look.^[85][86]

At the time of her husband's election, some sources anticipated that as a high-profile African-American woman in a stable marriage she would be a positive role model who would influence the view the world has of African-Americans.^[87][88] Her fashion choices were part of the 2009 Fashion week,^[89] but Obama's influence in the field did not have the impact on the paucity of African-American models who participate, that some thought it might.^[90][91]

She has been compared to Jacqueline Kennedy due to her sense of style,^[84] and also to Barbara Bush for her discipline and decorum.^[92][93] Her white, one-shoulder Jason Wu 2009 inaugural gown was said to be "an unlikely combination of Nancy Reagan and Jackie Kennedy".^[94][95] Obama's style is described as populist.^[29] She often wears clothes by designers Calvin Klein, Isabel Toledo, Narciso Rodriguez, Donna Ricco and Maria Pinto,^[96] and has become a fashion trendsetter,^[97][98][99] in particular her favoring of sleeveless dresses that showcase her toned arms.^[100]

She appeared on the cover and in a photo spread in the March 2009 issue of Vogue.^[101][102] Every First Lady since Lou Hoover (except Bess Truman) has been in Vogue,^[101] but only Hillary Clinton had previously appeared on the cover.^[103]

The media have been criticized for focusing more on the first lady's fashion sense than her serious contributions.^[29][104] She has stated that she would like to focus attention as First Lady on issues of concern to military and working families.^{[87][105][106]} U.S.News & World Report blogger, PBS host and Scripps Howard columnist Bonnie Erbe has argued that Obama's own publicists seem to be feeding the emphasis on style over substance.^[107] Erbe has stated on several occasions that she is miscasting herself by overemphasizing style.^[45][108]

Work undertaken and causes promoted[link]

Obama is greeted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, United Kingdom April 1, 2009

Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni

During her early months as First Lady, she visited homeless shelters and soup kitchens.^[109] She also sent representatives to schools and advocated public service.^[109][110] On her first trip abroad in April 2009, she toured a cancer ward with Sarah Brown, wife of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.^[111] She has begun advocating on behalf of military families.^[112] Like her predecessors Clinton and Bush, who supported the organic movement by instructing the White House kitchens to buy organic food, Obama has received attention by planting an organic garden and installing bee hives on the South Lawn of the White House, which will supply organic produce and honey to the First Family and for state dinners and other official gatherings.^[113][114]

Obama has become an advocate of her husband's policy priorities by promoting bills that support it. Following the enactment of the Pay equity law, Obama hosted a White House reception for women's rights advocates in celebration. She has pronounced her support for the economic stimulus bill in visits to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and United States Department of Education. Some observers have looked favorably upon her legislative activities, while others have said that she should be less involved in politics. According to her representatives, she intends to visit all United States Cabinet-level agencies in order to get acquainted with Washington.^[115]

She gained growing public support in her early months as first lady.^[109][116] She is notable for her support from military families and some Republicans.^[109][112] As the public is growing accustomed to her, she is becoming more accepted as a role model.^[109] Newsweek described her first trip abroad as an exhibition of her so-called "star power"^[116] and MSN described it as a display of sartorial elegance.^[82] There were questions raised in the American and British media regarding protocol when the Obamas met Queen Elizabeth II,^[117] and Michelle reciprocated a touch on her back by the Queen during a reception, purportedly against traditional royal etiquette.^[117][118] Palace sources denied that any breach in etiquette had occurred.^[119]

Obama and Ellen DeGeneres dance on the second anniversary of Let's Move!.

On June 5, 2009, the White House announced that Michelle Obama was replacing her current chief of staff, Jackie Norris, with Susan Sher, a longtime friend and adviser. Norris will become a senior adviser to the Corporation for National and Community Service.^[120] Then in February 2010, the resignation of White House Social Secretary, Desiree Rogers was announced to be effective the following month.^[121] Rogers had been at odds with other administration officials, such as David Axelrod, and then the White House State Dinner faux pas occurred on November 24, 2009.^[122] Rogers was replaced by Julianna Smoot.^[123]

After a year as First Lady, she undertook her first lead role in an administrationwide initiative. Her goal was to make progress in reversing the 21st century trend of childhood obesity.^[124] She stated that her goal is to make this effort her legacy: "I want to leave something behind that we can say, ‘Because of this time that this person spent here, this thing has changed.’ And my hope is that that’s going to be in the area of childhood obesity."^[124] She has named the movement "Let's Move!".^[125] This effort does not supplant her other efforts: supporting military families, helping working women balance career and family, encouraging national service, promoting the arts and arts education, and fostering healthy eating and healthy living for children and families across the country.^[126] She has earned widespread publicity on the topic of healthy eating by planting the first White House vegetable garden since Eleanor Roosevelt served as First Lady.^[124][127]

References[link]